"New Girl" is the second episode of Reboot.
The cast and crew, including network executive Elaine, meet for the reboot's first table read. Bree and Reed are aghast when Timberly, the reality TV star playing Reed's onscreen daughter, is gorgeous (Bree's concern) and a bad actress (Reed's concern). Gordon explains to Hannah that the network had demanded her stunt-casting. Concerned that Zack's mother Susan is smothering him, Clay tries to intervene on Zack's behalf, but winds up having sex with Susan instead.
To smooth things over with Reed, Gordon appeals to his talent and asks him to coach Timberly. She shows improvement, but Bree, out of jealousy, gives her bad acting tips instead. Gordon tries to write a wackier script to accommodate Timberly's weak acting, but Hannah protests.
At the pilot's taping, Reed accuses Bree of sabotaging Timberly, and Bree hastily comes clean. Hannah is shown another last-minute rewrite, and sees Reed and Timberly act out a scene where Lawrence apologizes for abandoning her. She catches her father before he leaves and the two begin to make up.
Tropes:
- Brick Joke: Hannah wants to use an indie song for the closing credits of the first episode, but Gordon thinks the $80K for the licensing is too expensive and suggests a Public Domain Soundtrack instead. The end credits of the actual episode becomes one of the public domain songs he suggested, "She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain".
- Chekhov's Gag: Hannah rejects a gag involving popcorn coming out of the washing machine, to the dismay of a crew member who's hauling a giant bag of popcorn around onset. The joke returns at the end of the episode where Hannah has stuffed Gordon's car with the popcorn, and it spills out when he opens the door.Gordon: ...You're right. It's too broad.
- Hollywood Beauty Standards: Mentioned. Co-showrunner Hannah is dismayed when Timberly, a conventionally beautiful reality star, shows up at the table read supposedly playing Hannah's frumpy Author Avatar. Hannah assures the cast that she had hired a classically trained actress who looked like a real person, not "the TV version of [a real person]". It turns out that the the network had insisted that Timberly be stunt-cast in the role because reality stars like her get people talking even if they can't act.
- Kissing Cousins: Bree offhandedly tells everyone her parents were second cousins.Bree: When I was young and I didn't win a beauty pageant, my mom would tell me it was because my eyes were too close together. As though her marrying her second cousin had nothing to do with it.
- Moment Killer: In-universe, a touching and emotional father-daughter reunion between the fictional characters of Lawrence and Whitney is broken up by the character of Jake flushing the toilet.
- Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Timberly takes time to adjust to acting out a script:Gordon: You're still reading the stage directions. See where it says, "Whitney exits?"
Timberly: Yeah?
Gordon: You're Whitney.
Timberly: Yeah.
Gordon: Exit. - Team Hand-Stack: After an awkward meeting Zack attempts to initiate a hand-stack ("Step Right Up on three") but no one bites and he does it by himself.
- Yiddish as a Second Language: Invoked when the non-Jewish character Reed is playing says he should have been a mensch. It's out of place, judging by Hannah's reaction to it, but she understands that it's her Jewish father (and co-showrunner) Gordon's way of apologizing to her.
